Biography

I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of South Africa and then completed my MSc Health Psychology and PhD at the University of Southampton. My first lectureship was in the School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Southampton after which I moved to Brunel University, London. I joined the University of Surrey as a Senior Lecturer in September 2016. I am a registered Health Psychologist and Chartered Psychologist.

News

Research

Research interests

I am particularly interested in how people experience, adjust to and cope with living with chronic illness and factors that are important for this process. This includes a focus on well-being and quality of life in various illnesses (e.g. HIV, Spinal cord injury, Meniere’s disease) and predictive factors important for this adjustment, for example, illness beliefs, stigma and social comparison. My adjustment work includes factors important for recovery and work investigating the post-traumatic growth experienced after illness, a growing area of research. I also research into factors perceived to be important for successful weight loss in obese and overweight people. I use both quantitative and qualitative methods to in my research.

My teaching

I teach Health Psychology to both Undergraduate and Postgraduate students.

Supervision

Postgraduate research supervision

Stage 2 Health Psychology Supervision:

I currently supervise9 Stage 2 Health Psychology trainees:

Sam Cockle

Sarah Golding

Anuska Randolph

Sarah Steiner

Mark Wherry

Sarah Helen King

Lucy Ollis

Laura Carter

Laurence Reeve

Current PhD supervision:

Shafali Arya (1st supervisor): the psychology of infertility and the experience of infertility treatment

Monique Botha (1st supervisor): Autistic community as a resource of resilience against minority stress

Sarah Helen King (2nd supervisor): Investigating the role of forgiveness in obesity related diabetes/obesity/eating behaviours

Laurence Reeve (2nd supervisor): Diabetes and the experience of stigma

Laura Carter (2nd supervisor): The role of alexithymia and interoception in overweight and obesity

Past PhD supervision:

Venecia Pearce (2nd supervisor): An assessment of body weight perceptions and its impact on psychological outcomes and physical activity in Jamaica (Brunel University London, 2017)

Aisan Ghaemian Oskouei (1st supervisor): The influence of social comparison on the perception of quality of life amongst people living with epilepsy in Iran and the United Kingdom (Brunel University London, 2016)

Nashmel Sargalo (1st supervisor): Quality of Life and Stigma in People with Epilepsy in People with Epilepsy in the UK & Kurdistan, Northern Iraq (Brunel University London, 2016)

Elizabeth Arnold (2nd supervisor): What factors influence the use of ambulatory oxygen in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease? (University of Southampton, 2009)

My publications

Publications

Dovey, T.M., Francis, R., Corbett, S. &, Dibb, B.
(2017).
"There's no punishment when working in special needs schools". [Mis]Perceptions and Use of Reinforcement by Special Education Teachers: Interviews and Corroborating Observational data. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 17 (4), 282 – 293.